Five Senses
by Favo de Mel
Summary: All his senses were slowly but surely being taken over by her. Naoki's POV.


**Disclaimer:** Itazura na Kiss isn't mine - it belongs to the amazing Kaoru Tada.

A/N: So I've had this story in mind for the past year or so, but it's been coming along very slow... I've had the worst case of writer's block for the longest time and it doesn't appear to be getting any better... but here we are. This is supposed to be a five chapter story - one for each sense, but only the first one's done. I'm almost afraid to post it because I have absolutely _no _idea when I'll be posting the next one, if ever. Anyway, I hope you guys like it - there aren't enough ItaKiss fics out there.

**Sight**

At first glance she was quite plain-looking, he thought, nothing out of the ordinary.

"I don't want it," he'd said off-handedly, ignoring the stricken look on the girl's face as he turned down her letter.

He'd seen her a handful of times around the school they both attended, noticed her clumsy tailing of him but quickly dismissed her without a second thought. Not much held the boy-genius' interest, specially not dimwitted high school girls who liked to make moon eyes at him and claimed to love him without even knowing him.

The second time he'd seen her hadn't been much better – it'd been but a passing glance on his way out of school that same afternoon, and if Watanabe hadn't pointed her out, he never would have noticed she was there.

Even then, the only thoughts to cross his mind as he saw her peeking around her friend were "how annoying" and, oddly enough, "wasn't her hair brown?" when he'd seen the way the dying sunlight hit her from behind. He'd quickly dismissed _that _thought, however, and proceeded to walk away after taking a jab at her less-than-stellar brains.

Watanabe, ever the gentleman, had winced and whispered a hurried "that was uncalled for" to him, but he'd merely shrugged and kept on walking. So what if he was honest? He _didn't _like stupid girls. Or any girl, for that matter.

That perception quickly changed, however, as he started seeing more and more of her (and it seemed like after that blasted letter she was simply _everywhere _he went – like that letter had triggered a chain of events and his life would never be the same again). She was still annoying and astonishingly stupid, to be sure, but he never thought of her as plain again after that second meeting.

It happened the day after she'd given him – or rather, a_ttempted_ to give him the letter.

He'd been late to school and in a rotten mood, thanks to his mother's inane (and suspiciously giddy) actions that morning, and the last thing he needed was half of F class blocking his way into the building. They were being loud and rambunctious as usual, led by that idiotic Kansai kid who'd actually accused _him _of having caused the earthquake that brought down his friend's house. _Her _house.

How ridiculous.

Still, he'd decided to humor them and dug inside his pocket for a couple of bills because, one, he really wanted them to move out of his way and, two, it wasn't like he needed the money, anyway.

He'd half expected her to blush beet red and shy away or swoon in delirious bliss, or both (he wasn't being arrogant – that was actually a daily occurrence in the life of Naoki Irie and it annoyed him to no end).

What he absolutely did _not _expect was for the girl to blow a gasket. Oh, she'd turned red alright – just not from gratitude or deliberate coyness; there was a great deal of indignation, pride and anger in her gaze.

To say he was surprised was putting it mildly; no one had ever dared to speak that way to him before.

It was actually refreshing, for a change.

As she yelled and hissed at him like an angry cat he finally had the chance to see her from up-close – and as he looked, _really_ looked at the girl in front of him who was rapidly reaching boiling point, she was so red, he'd come to a startling realization: the young woman whom he'd so easily dismissed as plain and boring before was anything but.

In fact, to the casual observer, her hair and eyes were a rather unremarkable brown. But to anyone bothering to look closer, her hair was scattered with natural reddish tints which were picked by the light when she moved her head and her eyes had an almost imperceptible ring of gold around the pupils. And when she was angry, they flashed a rich, dark gold, like warm syrup.

Over the years of their acquaintance Naoki had studied her carefully, with a zeal he'd never quite put into his schoolwork, while skillfully making it appear as though he couldn't stand the sight of her. In truth, and despite all his initial misgivings with her as a person and someone his mother wanted to force on him, he'd always been sort of fascinated by her.

And the more Naoki observed her, the more he picked little things about Kotoko, like the long, curly eyelashes that framed her amber eyes so gracefully and that ghost of a dimple on her left cheek. He loved how her pert little nose turned up right at the end, and the way she scrunched it up when she was confused—which was admittedly most of the time.

Her cheeks were always a healthy, rosy color, but were quick to redden whenever she was embarrassed, or mad. It was one of the reasons he enjoyed riling her up so much—that and the fact that, unlike most of the girls he knew and claimed to love him, she actually had a backbone, and was never afraid to stand up for herself.

If he was honest with himself (because he would go down swearing otherwise if anyone asked), he enjoyed their arguments much more than he let on. Sure, he was constantly annoyed by her – Kotoko could be very frustrating in her obtuseness and overly intense demonstrations of love and sometimes all he wanted to do was throttle her, but mostly… mostly he had to force himself to look away from her.

Oh, yes, she most _definitely_ looked her best when she was angry.

And she was petite. So short and tiny, in fact, that she barely even reached his shoulders, and when he held her he practically swallowed her against his much larger frame. And though many people believed it made them look awkward standing together, he kind of thought she was the perfect size for him.

Her mouth was small, reddish and heart-shaped, the bottom lip slightly fuller than the other, and when she pouted it jutted out provocatively, so much that he always had the hardest time keeping himself from grabbing her up and kissing her senseless (by the time high school graduation came around he'd come to the stunning revelation that he had an unhealthy obsession with her mouth).

Most of all, though, he loved her smile.

See, when Kotoko smiled, she did so with her whole face and, at the risk of sounding like one of those romantic fools he hated, her smile always made him feel all warm and fuzzy inside, like he'd just swallowed a mouthful of warm chocolate. And though he did not show it, a single smile from her could bring him out of the darkest of moods.

When she smiled, the dimple on her cheek became more pronounced, her eyes sparkled and her skin flushed, in such a way that the subtle beauty that was usually overlooked and made her barely passable at first glance shone through when she smiled, making her, in Naoki's eyes, nothing short of alluring.

No, Kotoko wasn't the kind of girl who turned heads and drew catcalls, like Reiko or Christine did. Her beauty was subtle. It was the kind you need to take a closer look in order to truly appreciate it. But once you did, you never wanted to look away again.


End file.
